1. Field of the Invention
The preferred embodiments of the present invention relate to electronic cards systems and methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Historically, people have honored one another through annual celebrations commonly known as “birthday celebrations.” Birthdays have become a fundamental part of modern life. Birthday celebrations are widely practiced by people of all ages, from three-year-old children to centenarians. With these birthday celebrations comes the need or desire to purchase goods and/or services (e.g., presents, cards, etc.) for or on behalf of the celebrated individual or groups of individuals. As a result, annual birthdays are significant business generators.
However, generating revenues via birthday celebrations requires physical effort on behalf of those wishing to celebrate or honor others for their birthdays. Typically, the physical effort required involves: 1) finding, selecting, purchasing and/or delivering presents; and/or 2) obtaining, preparing and/or delivering cards (the terminology “card” herein is not limited to any medium, but includes any medium with which an individual can communicate a message to a celebrated person—e.g., whether the message is visually (e.g., in text, video, or other visual form), audibly and/or otherwise communicated.
In that regard, throughout most of the 20th century, consumers usually needed to physically enter an establishment to purchase goods and/or services. Similarly, in order to communicate in writing with another person, one usually needed to physically draft a card and deliver the same to the other person. Now, in the 21st century, computer networks, such as the Internet, provide a new medium through which consumers can purchase goods and/or services and through which people can communicate in writing with one another, without significant physical activity.
In recent years, a number of Internet-based. Web Sites have emerged that enable individuals to celebrate annual-birthdays, certain holidays and/or certain other occasions via electronically delivered greeting cards, such as, e.g., BLUEMOUNTAIN.COM (the Web Site “home page” of which is depicted in FIG. 1) and ECARDS.COM (the Web Site “home page” of which is depicted in FIG. 2). While existing electronic card (ecard) Web Sites may simplify efforts needed to send electronic cards to people, using the Internet, they do not expand the existing “celebration” schema and do not realize the substantial revenue generation that can be achieved through the use of the Internet or other computer networks in relation to individual-centric celebrations (the terminology individual-centric used herein means related to an individual or group of individuals, such as, e.g., years from an individual's birth—some individual-centric events may relate to a plurality of individuals, such as, by way of example, a marriage). Some illustrative systems and/or methods are shown in the following U.S. patents, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties: U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,300 entitled Personalized Greeting Card With Electronic Storage Media And Method Of Personalizing Same, of CD Coupon, LLC; U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,117 entitled Apparatus And Method For Electronically Dispensing Personalized Greeting Cards And Gifts, of Blue Mountain, Inc.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,640 entitled System For Calculating Occasion Dates And Converting Between Different Calendar Systems, And Intelligent Agent For Using Same; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,729 entitled Interactive Kiosk For Selecting And Sending Mail Pieces.
To date, existing methods of celebration have been significantly hindered by human limitation. We celebrate annular birthdays because they are easy to celebrate. The dates are easy to remember; one only needs to recall a particular date, such as, e.g., Jan. 1, 2000. When that date arrives, it is understood to be time to celebrate.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a computer system and/or method that breaks free from existing hindrances—not only improving society through additional forms of celebration, but providing a platform upon which to generate substantial new revenue and business.